The
XRepublic is the description and implementation of a computer mediated
deliberation process. It is conceived as a system which can fundamentally
change the way that people share ideas for the purposes of collaborative
decision making. This includes but is not restricted to democratic
voting & policy making, logical problem solving in expert domains,
brainstorming and intelligence gathering.

The
XRepublic can be thought of as a virtual parliament and it is from
that perspective, using the terminology and technology of web-based
online conferencing, that it was originally conceived. It is designed
from the ground up to take advantage of Internet technology in order
to make the kinds of deliberative processes currently found in governments,
universities, intelligence organizations and other deliberative
bodies available to a distributed group of people connected by networked
computers.

XR provides
a series of computer mediated spaces as well as a variety of tools
which allow its participants to craft findings of fact, arguments
pro & con, opinion polls, votes, and other artifacts associated
with the construction of multi-authored, negotiated, subjective
statements.

It is primarily
designed as a communications medium and deliberative forum which
captures statements from human participants in realtime. It then
encourages participants to judge that information at their leisure
and allows motivated individuals or interest groups to structure
the information judged most useful. XRepublic facilitates through
a variety of polling, categorization and voting methods, collective
judgements to be passed on said structured information in the form
of resolutions. These resolutions are then, with their supporting
arguments and artifacts, kept on record for future reference, and
for related and derivative works.

Benefits:

XR's
immediate and primary benefit is that it eliminates the restrictions
imposed by physical and temporal quorum requirements of traditional
parliamentary procedures.

Through
an automated content management system XR automatically manages
the 'paperwork' required to support collaborative decision making.

XRepublic
is designed to overcome the many obstacles to deliberation offered
by current computer mediated communication systems through the implementation
of a unique combination of features not found anywhere today.

In
addition the core processes of the XRepublic are designed to be
flexible enough to fit into many different types of implementations.
(Web, Gaming, Mobile)

XR
assists individuals and groups of similar interests in finding each
other.

XRepublic
is Not:

The
XRepublic does not interject computer generated decisions or suggestions.
It is completely neutral and oblivious to subject matter. It is
a tool which enhances and extends the decision making capabilities
of groups of individuals.

While
XR does automatically manage compilation of votes, XR does not serve
in any capacity as a virtual parliamentarian according to fixed
rules. Participants have full control over what constitutes agreement,
censure etc.

Aims:

XR aims to be
both an experiment of exploring, and a practical means of extending
the decision making process of groups.

XR intends to
increase the probability of understanding by allowing competing
or dissonant interest groups a transparent space in which to debate.

XR intends to
use 'open source thinking' to connect multiple disciplines of thought
to collaborate and share detailed information in ways heretofore
impossible.

XR seeks to
improve the quality of current online public debate by providing
a place where people at all different levels of expertise and experience
can approach areas of common interest.

XR seeks to
make democracy more robust by expanding the understanding of deliberative
processes to ordinary people who currently may only engage in the
political process through voting.

Major Features:

There are several
major components to the XRepublic system which make it uniquely
capable of attaining these goals.